The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-10-06


II believe that. I know il. But
martyrdom, my child, is nothing beside
right to knowledge that goes unsatis-
fed. You would meet lion unmoved,
but let this mysterious and undiscribed
lover refuse to tell you Of himself, his
profession, his mother, his past and
his income, and you would lay q bar be-
fore him beyond which he could not adj
vance. You would say to him; You
will not trust me, and dare not trust
you The marriage license would new
or be put to use."
"You do not understand me, sir" she
said simply. II could not give the
love until had given the trust-such
trust as the child gives to its father in
the dark. l could then close my eyes
and be led. Perhaps this sounds fool
ish to you, but you asked me ques-
ton, and I have given you an answer"
If Farmdale know little Of this man,
there was less of Miss Denny that it did
not know. Its knowledge of him could
be briefly summed up: That he had
ridden into it one night on the down
stage coach, and asked at the post.
Office to be shown quiet place
where board could be had for week or
so; that the morning found him at the
cozy table of Miss Denny, beside the
clerk Of the village store, flanked right
and left by the manager of the tannery
and the schoolmaster, and opposite the
mistress of the house, who sat en-
trenched behind the dantiest of her
household gods; that he had slept,
lounged and eaten with the air of one
who, at thirty eight, had thrown
off some great mental or business
strain that had already grown streaks
of gray in his hair; that he
spent money rs freely as need
be in the narrow WAYS and close econo-
mics of this small, Ohio town; that his
chief delight and one known vice was to
fire good humored TRADES at the urchins
of the neighborhood, in words far be-
yond their comprehension; that he had
given to no man and to no woman one
hint to his past or home, and that the
bravest of them had not cared to ques-
ton him.
Laid beside these mysteries, the life
of Miss Denny was an open book that
even the children could read. Its les
son was pure and simple. Even that
missionary of personal intelligence, who
had taken upon herself the responsible
ity of being mother to the shock headed
boy could find no broken letter in it that
venom would lie upon. Know Janet
Denny? she would have answered you.
well, l should say so. She was thir-
ty-one last December. 10th l believe
perhaps the 9th--it was Tuesday,
anyway. Her father gave up and died
ten years ago-didnt amount to much
with his readin' in the haymow, and a
sermonizin' at the woodpile. Her moth
er has been gone, too, goin' on five years.
Smart gal Takes boarders, and her
folks didn't even leave her the house
she lives in. She taught school once,
in the seminary OF Mayfeld, but gave it
up to nurse her mother. Reads poetry
not that / see the good of it, but
'spects she does, or else she wouldn't do
it. She always says what she means,
does her own work like the rest of us,
and makes her own bonnets. Heard
she had the chance to marry
jabbering Dutchman, one OF
them professors over at May
field, but don't believe it. 'Twould
take a Drawer man than little Dutch
man with long name to make love to
her. She had q beau once, when she
was seventeen or eighteen, but he died
fore anything was said and Janet kept
kinder quiet for few years. No, she'll
live and die an old maid. I've always
said that. But see herel What did that
dodgin' fellow in the speckled suit mean
by tellin' my Bill that he come from the
Land of Nod? My man says their amt
no such place in these diggings; and
my old man has travelled"
Janet had indeed answered his ques-
ton with honesty, but she was too
much of the woman to confess that,
when tho argement began TO take shape
between them some weeks ago,
her position had been assumed
for that arguments sake. But by dint
of repetition, and the searching OF all
the hooks and corners of her heart for
pleas in support of her theory, she had
unconsciously become her own first and
most steadfast convert, and burned With
all the zeal of the martyrs OF old.
Had she known she dreamed
for O moment-of the love that had
sprung up in the heart Of q stranger
who had halted for rest at her gate, and
that he was only hiding it until such
time as confession should be the most
certain to win success, not all the elo-
quence and all challenges that his lips
could utter would have led her to pro-
mulgate or defend the faith to which she
had given her discipleship.
She knew it all week later. For